Bharti Airtel's net profit rises 24 per cent to ₹10,710 crore in September quarter

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel, in its results announced on Thursday, November 5, 2026, reported a consolidated profit of ₹10,710 crore for the second quarter ended September 2026, marking a 24 per cent increase. The company stated that this growth in profit was observed due to the increase in revenue per user following changes made to mobile phone tariffs. According to regulatory filings, the company's profit during the same period last year was ₹8,651 crore.

According to a report by The Hindu, Bharti Airtel's consolidated revenue from operations stood at ₹60,877.5 crore, a 16.7 per cent increase from ₹52,145.4 crore in the same quarter last year. During this period, Bharti Airtel's revenue from India grew by 9.4 per cent to reach ₹42,308 crore.

The company stated that India's mobile service revenue saw a year-on-year increase of 10.1 per cent due to growth in the number of customers and improved collections. The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in the September quarter was ₹271, compared to ₹256 in the same quarter last year.

Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman of Bharti Airtel, stated that there has been a quarter-on-quarter increase of 6.7 per cent in constant currency revenue in the Africa market, which is an excellent performance. He added that the improving performance in Africa is benefiting from Airtel's own homegrown technology stack, which is strengthening market reach capabilities.

Mr. Vittal further stated that a steady revenue growth of 2.7 per cent was recorded in the India business. Due to the strategy of portfolio premiumisation and acquiring quality customers, revenue from mobile services in India increased by 3.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

According to the report, Bharti Airtel's global customer base increased by 11 per cent to 69.25 crore from 62.35 crore last year. The number of customers in India increased by approximately 11 per cent to 49.86 crore. Among these, the number of mobile customers grew by 3.6 per cent to 37.72 crore, and home services, including fixed-line broadband services, grew by 29 per cent to 1.53 crore.

In the September 2026 quarter, mobile data usage per customer on Airtel's network increased by 28.8 per cent to 36.5 GB from 28.3 GB last year. Gopal Vittal stated that strong momentum is being maintained in the postpaid segment with the addition of 12 lakh new customers, which is a record high. He added that 29 lakh smartphone data customers were added with an ARPU of ₹271.

The company stated that strategic focus on the postpaid segment led to the addition of 12 lakh new customers, bringing the total customer base to 3.12 crore. In the last year, the number of smartphone data customers has increased by 1.88 crore.

Bharti Airtel's consolidated capex (capital expenditure) for this quarter was ₹12,467 crore, of which India's capex was ₹9,908 crore. The company stated that 497 towers and 11,684 mobile broadband base stations were installed this quarter to strengthen digital infrastructure. Under network expansion in the last year, 5,649 towers were installed and 44,718 km of fiber was laid, increasing coverage and capacity.

Additionally, the company invested ₹2,826 crore in strategic land parcels for the expansion of data centres in India. The company's net debt decreased by approximately 14 per cent year-on-year from ₹1.94 lakh crore to ₹1.66 lakh crore.